Conscious-authentic leadership in the workplace: Its impact on employee behavior and specific organizational outcomes

This is a comparative study of two groups of companies. Group I companies are led by CEOs who use a conscious-authentic leadership approach. Group II companies are led by CEOs who do not use a conscious-authentic leadership approach. Each group is pre-categorized by legitimate and unrelated third parties in the business community and academe. The contention is that Group I CEOs, perceived by their employees as conscious-authentic leaders, purposefully infuse their conscious-authentic leadership behavior, personal values and belief system within the daily business practices, policies and employee programs of their respective organizations. As hypothesized, the result of this approach yields enhanced positive organizational behavior (POB) generated by the employees of Group I companies which favorably impacts specific organizational outcomes. By comparison, Group II companies do not yield these results.;The specific organizational outcomes tested for this study are voluntary employee turnover and absenteeism. These outcomes are tested over the period 2003-2005, inclusive. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are used in this study. An Employee Questionnaire and a Leadership Questionnaire are used as data gathering instruments. Each CEO of Group I and Group II companies is interviewed and the responses are used for comparison purposes and to construct a proposed working model of conscious-authentic leadership components used by Group I CEOs. Group I CEOs purposefully implement and infuse these components throughout their respective organization. The result of this study indicates greater positive affects on employee organizational behavior and a higher measured record for specific organizational outcomes for Group I companies during this test period.